Russian recruits stand outside a military recruitment centre in Volzhskiy, Volgograd region, on Wednesday. Photo / AP
Russian recruits stand outside a military recruitment centre in Volzhskiy, Volgograd region, on Wednesday. Photo / AP
A video and a handful of photographs from inside Russia's dishevelled attempt at war has exposed the embarrassing low leader Vladimir Putin has stooped to.
The Russian leader has ordered 300,000 extra soldiers to the frontline but photographs suggest his new recruits might not be war-ready.
Pictures from Sevastopol in Crimea show groups of men — many well into their 50s and 60s — gripping weapons and wearing uniforms, while ragtag groups of men have shown up at a recruitment centre in Volzhskiy in the Volgograd region.
Several appear in questionable fighting shape and have drawn comparisons to the popular sitcom Dad's Army.
В списке особо тяжких преступлений Путина насильственная отправка на безумную, бессмысленную войну десятков тысяч россиян будет стоять на первых местах.
Проводы на войну мобилизованных жителей Севастополя, 27.09.2022 Фото: Виктор Коротаев/Коммерсантъ pic.twitter.com/WiGPfNEPR3
Translation: On Putin's list of particularly serious crimes, forcibly sending tens of thousands of Russians to an insane, senseless war will be at the top of the list. Seeing off the mobilised residents of Sevastopol to the war.
At the same time, a video shared on social media appears to show a Russian officer telling new recruits what to expect — and it is not good news.
New recruits are being told to ask their wives and girlfriends for tampons to use as bandages in the event that they get shot, as military supplies run out.
In the video, a woman identified as a military doctor tells them the Russian army is woefully short of equipment and that only uniforms will be supplied.
"I say right away if you are near the fire, you are f***ed," she says, before reeling off a list of items they will need to acquire themselves before entering the war zone.
Russian recruits walk past a military recruitment centre in Volgograd, Russia, on Saturday. Photo / AP
"Take sleeping bags with you, you will sleep where you have to," she says.
"All this also applies to medicine. Diarrhoea tablets, hydrogen peroxide, tourniquets. I don't have enough tourniquets for you."
She recommends asking relatives to send any supplies they can find, before offering alternative suggestions.
"Gut car first aid kits and take medical tourniquets from there.
"Get your wives and girlfriends to get sanitary pads. The cheapest pads plus the cheapest tampons. You all know what the tampons are for?"
"To stop the bleeding," asks one of the recruits.
"You shove it into the bullet wound and the tampon expands and applies pressure to the wounds," says the woman.
"I know all that from Chechnya," she says in an apparent reference to Russia's two wars there between 1994 and 2000.
Russian recruits stand outside a military recruitment centre in Volzhskiy, Volgograd region, on Wednesday. Photo / AP
Reports have emerged of Russian soldiers being resupplied with soggy lavatory paper and Soviet-era field telephones.
Soldiers have repeatedly complained, leading to pro-war Russians crowdfunding online for supplies.
Everything from rifle scopes to boots for soldiers have been sent to Ukraine.
However, the video, reportedly filmed in the southern city of Volgograd, is one of the most potentially damning indicators yet of the scale of Russia's negligence of its armed forces.
Meanwhile, long lines of Russians trying to escape being called up to fight in Ukraine continued to clog highways out of the country on Wednesday, and Moscow reportedly set up draft offices at borders to intercept some of them.
North Ossetia, a Russian region that borders Georgia, declared a state of "high alert" and said that food, water, warming stations and other aid should be brought in for those who have spent days in queues. Volunteers on the Georgian side of the border also have brought water, blankets and other assistance.
North Ossetia restricted many passenger cars from entering its territory, and set up a draft office at the Verkhy Lars border crossing, Russian news agencies said. Some media outlets released photos at the crossing showing a black van with "military enlistment office" written on it.
Another such draft checkpoint was set up in Russia along the Finnish border, according to the independent Russian news outlet Meduza.
People, most of them Russians, walk after they crossed the border between Georgia and Russia at Verkhny Lars, in Georgia, on Wednesday. Photo / AP
Tens of thousands of Russian men have fled in the week since President Vladimir Putin announced a mobilisation to bolster struggling Russian forces in Ukraine.
Although Putin said the callup was "partial," aimed at calling up about 300,000 men with past military service, many Russians fear it will be much broader and more arbitrary than that.
There are numerous reports of men with no military training and of all ages receiving draft notices.
Alexander Kamisentsev, who left his home in Saratov for Georgia, described the scene on the Russian side of the border.
"It's all very scary — tears, screams, a huge number of people. There is a feeling that the government does not know how to organise it. It seems that they want to close the border, but at the same time they are afraid that protests may follow, and they let people leave," he told the AP.
He said he decided at the last moment to leave "because I am not going to kill my Ukrainian brothers or go to prison".
People walk toward the border crossing at Verkhny Lars between Georgia and Russia, leaving North Ossetia-Alania Republic on Wednesday. Photo / AP
Protesters carrying Georgian and Ukrainian flags and signs like "Russia Kills" greeted Russians at the border Wednesday. Giga Lemonjava of the political party Droa, which organised the protest, said the evacuees threaten Georgia's security and economy.
One protester, Helen Khoshtaria, tweeted: "We organised a protest at the border today so that the incoming Russians know how we feel about their 'Russian world'."
Russians have been crossing by car, bicycle, scooter and foot. According to Yandex Maps, the traffic jam leading to Verkhny Lars, a town near the border between Georgia and North Ossetia, stretched for about 15km on Tuesday.
Georgia's Interior Ministry said over 53,000 Russians had entered the country since last week.
